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An open letter to House Speaker John Boehner: The magic of 218

When O’Neill wanted to do something for Americans, he counted to 218, the author says. | AP Photo

By SEN. BARBARA BOXER | 11/28/12 4:33 AM EST

Dear Speaker Boehner:

Nearly 30 years ago, I was sworn in as a freshman member of the House of Representatives to begin the first of five terms in the “People’s House.” The Speaker of the House at that time was Tip O’Neill, the legendary politician who did more to elevate the role of Speaker than anyone in modern history.

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While Tip O’Neill may be best known for his famous quote, “all politics is local,” what I remember most is his pragmatism when it came to counting votes. When Tip O’Neill wanted to get something done for the American people, he counted to 218 – and frankly, it didn’t matter to him one bit how he got there.

In 1982, a year before I arrived in the House, the country was in serious trouble and the economy in recession. The Reagan tax cut that had been enacted the previous year had failed to spark the economy and the deficit was skyrocketing out of control. In response, Congress embarked on a package of spending cuts and tax increases to address the deficit and stabilize the economy.

In August of that year, a House-Senate conference committee that included members as ideologically different as Bob Dole and Dan Rostenkowski met day-and-night for 8 days to hammer out a final bill that included $98 billion in revenue, $17.5 billion in spending cuts over three years, and an extension of unemployment benefits. Both sides had to make major concessions and everyone knew it was going to be tough to get the votes for passage.

Prior to the vote in the House, Tip O’Neill took to the floor with a simple message for his colleagues: “The President and I do not belong to the same political party. We do not share the same philosophy. In fact, we seldom agree. But we do share something together, a deep love for this country and a deep concern for its future … We are together because we know that if the economy of this nation is not strong and not vigorous its citizens are going to suffer.”

Following those remarks, the House passed the measure, known as the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act, with 226 votes – 123 from the Democrats and 103 from the Republicans. It was a major bipartisan achievement and typical of Tip’s leadership in the House.

In 1982, the Speaker was in the same position you are in now – with the Senate and White House in control of the opposition party. And once again, our economy and the well-being of millions of American families are at risk. I urge you to take a page out of Tip O’Neill’s playbook and achieve a solution to the sequester that includes members of both parties – not just the Republican caucus.

The magic of Tip O’Neill was the magic of 218. He knew how to find a fair compromise and how to work with a President and Senate Majority Leader of the opposing party. And he knew how to get the votes he needed to do what was best – not for his political party, but for our country.

Naming a building after Tip O’Neill is wonderful. But the best testament to his legacy would be passing bipartisan legislation that avoids the fiscal cliff.

Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

Readers' Comments (7)

First the biggest problem I see is that Barbra Boxer spent the last 30 years in the ruling class. This sounds good, so let's have the cuts first and then we can look at the revenue side because we never did get the cuts that were supposed to be part of the 1982 deal. Look at the spending in this chart during the 1980's because spending kept going up every year so how can you possibly claim that there was a spending cut in this deal?

http://www.taxpolicycen...

The difference between 1982 and now is that back then we had a president who was not consumed with class warfare, and who did not spend 90% of his time in office campaigning, and who did not lie incessantly and who was actually a leader unlike what we have now. Reagan was a leader because it was not Tip O'neil who got the the republicans to go along with this deal it was Reagan and he never should have gone along with this garbage that the democrats put out, that if you give us more taxes we will cut spending. The cutting spending never happens and we have proof of this under Regan and under George Bush 1. Check out Bush's term for the spending cuts we were supposed to get when he agreed to raise taxes and you will see spending kept going up. The republicans need to reign in government spending first and then they can look for more revenue not the other way around because Obama is already going back on his pledge to put everything on the table to get a deal. The only reason why democrats can get away with this is because the American people do not know history and due to the public education system they also do not understand math. The proof that we have a dumbed down electorate is that they re-elected Obama for a second term.

The debt tripled under Reagan and Reagan did not even get his wish for his EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE star wars defense program. And during the out of controll spending of George W Bush from 2000-2006 he had a Republican controlled congress. Oops can't blame that on the Democrats.

Republicans back then cared about what was good for the country and we didn't have bums like Norquist calling the shots.

The truth and history are not subject to conservative approval

Truth is back then congress was filled with distringuished men and women with a sense of morality and integrity........today they are liken unto a pack of classless, selfish, and greedy animals.........

Granny wrote: "Truth is back then congress was filled with distringuished men and women with a sense of morality and integrity........today they are liken unto a pack of classless, selfish, and greedy animals........."